Argor, unwilling to enter into the dark chamber, casts a spell to summon four red orbs of light to levitate above the heads of everyone but Hrimnagel.
__________
Nyugusk sees the stony statues attacking Grommuk, and scuttles sideways on four legs around behind the one Cladissa hasn't cursed. He closes behind the statue and lashes out with his own stony pincer, crushing a hunk of debris off of the gargoyle and holding it tight in his insectoid grip.
______________
The winged, horned stone monstrosities spring across the room with shocking speed. The descend on the giant Grommuk and attack him with slashes of their long, wicked claws.
Hrimnagel squints at the gargoyles trying to remember their special defenses. He stealths to the other side of Gromm to get a better shot, then releases an arrow.
Cladissa steps into the room just in front of Argor, surveying the battle. She targets the gargoyle that had struck Grommuk and gives it a baleful stare, tearing away the strands of fortune.
Argor, unwilling to enter into the dark chamber, casts a spell to summon four red orbs of light to levitate above the heads of everyone but Hrimnagel. The ghostly red orbs throw the room into creepy contrasts, sending a myriad of hellish shadows scattering across the wall.
Nyugusk sees the stony statues attacking Grommuk, and scuttles sideways on four legs around behind the one Cladissa hasn't cursed. He closes behind the statue and lashes out with his own stony pincer, crushing a hunk of debris off of the gargoyle and holding it tight in his insectoid grip.
Grommuk roars at the gargoyles in front of him, before balling his two giant fists together into a wrecking ball-sized lump. He pivots on one heel and whirls, slamming the meaty bludgeon through both of the evil creatures. Though his slam hits with the strength of a giant, it does less damage to the pair than it should have. Their stony hides resist much of the damage.
================================
The gargoyle being held in Nyugusk's pincer, twists towards him. It shrieks angrily and attacks him with its horns, teeth and claws. The statuesque monster successfully rakes one set of claws through the alchemist's carapace and then gores him in the chest with its twisted horns, leaving Nyug with two bloody wounds.
The second gargoyle turns its fury to the towering orc who moments before thumped it upside the head. Grommuk dodges one slash of its claws. He's not fast enough the second time, and gets raked across the thigh. When the garogyle jams its horns at the brawler, he steps back, and smacks its stony face out of the way as it tries to bite him.
_________________________________________
Miss, Hit, Miss, Hit
Miss, Hit, Miss, Miss
Nyugusk releases the gargoyle and then immediately lashes out again, pinching it in two and crumbling it to rubble. He then steps a bit closer to the remaining one and continues his assault. He manages to damage the second one as well, but can't quite manage to restrain it.
_______________
Cladissa breathes a bit easier when one of the gargoyles falls to Nyugusk's pincers. She focuses her newest hex on the other, willing its eyelids to grow heavy and pressing upon its mind with heavy drowsiness.
fail
Nyugusk's blows have almost killed the second gargoyle as well, so Grommuk tries to finish that one.
He crushes the creature's stony face.
Argor steps further into the room, willing their lights to move along with them and touches the wand to Grommuk's back. He then says, "Let us proceed."
Grommuk looks at Argor, "What proceed?"
He means we should keep going. I concur. I mean, I agree, assuming you're feeling better.
After Hrimnagel surveys the room and door of magic and alignments, he suggests, "Nyug, would you please open the door? I can sneak inside if something doesn't attack." Hrim enters with detect evil running.
"I think you Cladissa. I call you wrong whole time?!? Okay, Konkur, let's keep going. Grommuk like big big time!" The giant orc looks around. "Go that way, or that way?" he asks, pointing to the way they came in with one hand and the room that says "Scriptorium" over the door with the other.
Argor rolls his eyes at the idiocy of Grommuk. He pinches the bridge of his nose as the torturous, imbecilic conversation unfolds before him.
"If the serum doesn't kill me, the inevitable aneurism I develop from being exposed to the sheer amount of stupidity I am surrounded by surely will."
He then points to the Scriptorium door and says, "There, Grommuk. Go through there."
"Yes, the door that the gargoyles were guarding."
No, no Grommuk. I'm Cladissa. Concur just means 'in agreement'. It's-- nevermind. She winces and begins to mirror Argor's movements until she notices how similar she is behaving, and forces herself to keep her hands at her waist.
She then slinks over to stand just behind Hrimnagel and inhales deeply next to the room, to see if she detects anything while Hrim goes to scout.
Grommuk shrugs, stomping over to the door and opening it for Hrimnagel. "Be careful, Hrim...You need help, just say..." the orc takes a deep breath and shouts at the top of his lungs. The groups' ears ring as the shouts echoes in the small chamber. Hrimnagel shakes his head and darts into the chamber stealthily.
This dark, vaulted chamber serves as a scriptorium, where texts from the archives next door may be read or copied at leisure. Bare wooden shelves, empty except for some extra writing supplies (sheets of parchment, bottles of ink, and quills), line the eastern wall, and three desks with high stools stand in the center of the room between six columns. A small sign on the southern door reads “Archives—Private.”
A body lies slumped in the southwestern corner, still clutching a club. Its legs have been eaten away by acid, and the corpse is already showing signs of putrefaction, with patches of mold on the skin. A broken lantern lies next to the body, its oil spilled on the floor.
Argor follows along behind the orc-blooded buffoonery leading the way, willing his lights to move to and fro around the chamber ahead of him so that he can see ahead, all the while remaining cloaked in shadow himself.
Before approaching the body or touching anything, Hrimnagel cycles through his detection abilities (magic and alignments) while surveying the room. If nothing registers, he signals to the team to enter the room. Otherwise, he sneaks back and quietly recounts to the team what he found.
Hrimnagel doesn't detect anything. While searching the room he finds that the two northern desks each contain small, empty candelabra, two bottles of dried ink, and old quill pens. The southern desk has been used more recently — the candelabrum holds the stubs of half-burnt candles, the ink bottles are still wet, and fresh ink stains the quill pens. A handful of books and scrolls, treatises on the solar system. Someone has underlined certain passages, and written notes in the margins in Osiriani.
He also spots a sheet of parchment that fell beneath the desk and was forgotten. It's also written in Osiriani and covered in notes, as well as sketches and diagrams of a strange magical potal and some kind of Osiriani canister.
Nyugusk scuttles sideways into the room on his clawed legs. He thumbs through the papers and then says, "Hmmmph. Not a language I know. Maybe Osiriani?
"If none of you do, I know an extract I can prepare to help me understand it...but it will take a minute. I'm OK with waiting if you are, as I think the knowledge contained here could be well worth it to us."
"If Argor can't figure it out the words, we should wait for your extract. Since the desk is recently used, the notes would probably be useful." Hrimnagel offers in his small, thin voice.
Argor attempts to decipher the writing, but realizes he would not be able to do so quickly. He shakes his head and says, "Do what you must, Nyugusk. To go into a battle neglecting potentially helpful information would be foolish. But do it quickly, because to let our preparatory spells go to waste would be equally as bad of a choice."
"If Argor can't figure it out the words, we should wait for your extract. Since the desk is recently used, the notes would probably be useful." Hrimnagel offers in his small, thin voice.
Cladissa glances at the papers and shakes her head. Then she goes over to the body and takes a look to see if she could note any clues as to its demise, aside from the obvious.
The body appears to be that of the watchman. He died of some large slashing wounds, and now there is a strange mold growing over the whole body.
Cause of death: severe lacerations resulting in massive blood loss. The acid and mold appear to be post-mortem, Cladissa pronounces.
After brewing and consuming his extract, Nyugusk takes a look at the material. A handful of books and scrolls, treatises on the solar system and the empty space beyond, lie open on the desk. Underlined passages and marginalia written in Osiriani refer to the “the Dark Tapestry” and the “Dominions of the Black,” as well as something called the “Gate of Beyond,” a long-lost portal to these otherworldly realms. References
to an ancient aberrant sorcerer named Kubburum Ishmedagan and the mad wizard Ralzeros the Overwatched are also highlighted. Even reading the osiriani Nyugusk is unable to decipher the paper. However, working with Argor and spending a couple of minutes, they solve it together.
The notes seem to talk about the Gate of Beyond. They detail how the brain canister depicted is the key to opening the portal, how it can be attached to the Gate, and the revelation that destroying the cylinder while it is attached to the Gate will demolish the portal as well.
Nyugusk reads through the papers with interest and then explains about the brain canister, and that -- if it proves necessary to destroy the gate, we can do so by destroying the canister while attached to it.
Before Nyug opens the door, Hrimnagel casts Detect Magic. He then stealths into the room. After he surveys the room detecting magic, he detects evil, chaos, law and good, in that order.
If nothing registers, he calls to the team to enter the room. Otherwise, he sneaks back and quietly recounts to the team what he found.
This chamber contains several tall wooden bookshelves reaching to the ceiling, almost bursting with the weight of books and scrolls filling the shelves. The shelves and their contents are encrusted with thick growths of brightly colored fungus and glistening mold. Many tomes have fallen from the shelves, their open pages forming a base for more fungi and large mushrooms which carpet the floor. The air here is damp and close, and several of the fungal growths pulse with an eerie purple light that dimly lights the room.
As soon as Hrimnagel enters, a bright purple mushroom similar in size to himself begins shrieking at an extremely high volume. The sound is so loud that it literally hurts. Even the Agents in the other room can feel the pain of it.
Further, Hrimnagel sees a swollen, brainlike bulb encrusted with fungal shelves squatting atop several ropy legs. A wide mouth bisects the bulb's crown. As he looks at it his mind fills with a profusion of confusing images - fragments of his own memories all jumbled together with alien words.
Pass
Fail
Initiative:
Cerebric Fungi 13.6
Party 12.2
Shriekers 9
Two more of the alien fungal creatures shamble forward out of the darkness, approaching Hrimnagel. They appear to be unable to locate him, and stop near the door, waiting to see what set off the shrieker and opened the door.
______________________________________________
Usually, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of that name. A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus. The user activates it mentally. Armor never affects a spell-like ability's use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.
A spell-like ability has a casting time of 1 standard action unless noted otherwise in the ability or spell description. In all other ways, a spell-like ability functions just like a spell.
Spell-like abilities are subject to spell resistance and dispel magic. They do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated. Spell-like abilities cannot be used to counterspell, nor can they be counterspelled.
If a character class grants a spell-like ability that is not based on an actual spell, the ability's effective spell level is equal to the highest-level class spell the character can cast, and is cast at the class level the ability is gained.
Let's get some light in there! Cladissa whispers, while preparing to cast a spell.
Cladissa peers into the room and tries another new trick she just picked up. She gestures and incants, and a miniature thundercloud appears over the nearest fungal creature (that's moving). Then she waves her hands and sends the cloud to harass the other one.
____________
A crackling, spherical storm cloud flies in whichever direction you point and deals electricity damage to those it strikes. It has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability. If it enters a space that contains a creature, the storm stops moving for the round and deals 3d6 points of electricity damage to that creature, though a successful Reflex save negates that damage. It provides concealment (20% miss chance) to anything within it, and its flickering light illuminates the same area a candle would.....